Yer a wizard harry

[Sundance]

This thread isn't about adding in new spells, but really looking at the wizard spells as they are now and how to balance them. Consider any spell I haven't mentioned as balanced. The following are my humble opinion:
Clairevoyance: balanced. Could do with adding staffs to the list of things you can find. That would be rad.
Blind: somewhat balanced. Blind has a quick recharge, and is intended as a quick defensive spell but it has a big list to select from when you use it. It would work 10x better if when you select it, it blinds the next person you click.
Fireball: Many a thread suggested this would work better as a staff.
Warp: somewhat balanced. See: blind
Shockwave: this would be more interesting as a staff. Hitting a person will send them flying as if they were hit by an abomination, whilst hitting the ground beneath acts like spell (has a charge) "you shall not pass!"
Knock: balanced. Although it could do with an effect of damaging bots
Empower: the only people who choose this spell are people who don't know what it is, or they know exactly what it is, and abuse the fuck out of it. Let's change empower competely, instead of all this hulk and tk, let it work as a spell that allows the user to use spells without a staff for a short period of time.
Animate dead: now the golems weaker brother. Skeletons could throw bones every while, causing the user to bleed.
Dopellganger: this spell is useless. Let's change it entirely. Have it work so you can take the appearence of a station employee for 30 seconds, similar to vamp. Combine with empower for max gain.
Staff of Cthulhu: corruption ritual is redundant so this could do with a buff somehow. Increase damage + brain damage. Throwing it at someone should do some serious damage, should have the effect as an asteroid in that it can be flung through Walls.

[Clarks]

Dopellganger: this spell is useless. Let's change it entirely. Have it work so you can take the appearence of a station employee for 30 seconds, similar to vamp. Combine with empower for max gain.

Doppelganger is great to send a mob on a wild goose chase while you skulk in the other direction. It could only be improved by having the fake wizard select a random direction to run into whenever it hits something it cannot move through.

Fireball: Many a thread suggested this would work better as a staff.
Shockwave: this would be more interesting as a staff. Hitting a person will send them flying as if they were hit by an abomination, whilst hitting the ground beneath acts like spell (has a charge) "you shall not pass!"

It's incredibly easy to lose your staff. The staff of cthulhu is only worthwhile because the crew will usually not know how to move it safely and get tons of brain damage, give up and leave the staff where it was dropped.
A special staff will be a wasted spell most of the time, unless there is some protection like cthulhu has. You could put it back in the pack after every use, yeah.... but seriously?

[epicdwarf]

Soulguard needs to either give you missing limbs back , or give you magic ones that can be ripped off by the crew.

[Sundance]

Doppelganger is great to send a mob on a wild goose chase while you skulk in the other direction. It could only be improved by having the fake wizard select a random direction to run into whenever it hits something it cannot move through.

I have no counterpoint other than I disagree, and the amount of times doppelgänger is actually picked by a wiz (virtually none) is reason enough to change. And it's not because wizards are using it wrong. It's because there are far far superior spells than this.

It's incredibly easy to lose your staff. The staff of cthulhu is only worthwhile because the crew will usually not know how to move it safely and get tons of brain damage, give up and leave the staff where it was dropped.
A special staff will be a wasted spell most of the time, unless there is some protection like cthulhu has. You could put it back in the pack after every use, yeah.... but seriously?

Who said that the staffs wouldn't work like cthulu? The pyrostaff could set a non wizard on fire, while the shockwave staff would send non wizards flying. That and combine this with the clairevoyance suggestion that you can locate staffs, and it's win win.

Soulguard needs to either give you missing limbs back , or give you magic ones that can be ripped off by the crew.

I thought this was a bug/oversight? It seems like the latter

[icarus]

i don't like empower as it is but a better solution would be that it gives you random beneficial powers (super fart, camouflage, lasers) with different power combinations each time

[mozi]

before VR combat sim disappeared there was a prototype robe with a special electric blast spell, not very effective against mobs but wrecked the shit out of securitrons and robuddies.

maybe staff of cthulhu could get that power. bots are the ones who most reliably cause the wizard to lose their staff in the first place so it could balance out the staff's high price tag..

[Sundance]

That would be neat mo zi. If I remember correctly the robes had a little icon on the top left corner that gave you the ability to use the spell. If we applied that to all the suggested staffs, we could be onto something.
Cthulhu: brute+brain impact, allows the blast spell which does moderate damage to mobs, severe damage to bots. Mind shocks non wizards. Overall versatile staff in distance and close quarters
Pyromancy: burn (welder) impact, allows firebomb spell. Sets non wizards ablaze. Staff better for long distance, weak close quarters.
Shockwave: abomination punch (flying) impact. Allows shockwave spell. Sends non wizards flying. Staff brilliant for close quarters.

[pizzatiger]

I think we are ALL missing a major horrible spell.....That bull charge spell

it a expensive spell that odes one thing only. Make a path that takes a few seconds to activate and bull that does moderate dammge and is rather easly avoidable.

It needs somekind of buff to make it better than what it is

[epicdwarf]

I think we are ALL missing a major horrible spell.....That bull charge spell

it a expensive spell that odes one thing only. Make a path that takes a few seconds to activate and bull that does moderate dammge and is rather easly avoidable.

It needs somekind of buff to make it better than what it is

Make the bull a mob that seeks the most armed person and
explodes.

[Captain_Bravo]

I've suggested this before, but since we're going over stuff:

Why do we have to make Fireball and Shockwave an entirely new staff? Why not make them a spell that powers up your staff? Cast the spell, infuse your staff with fire energy, and for either a set number of charges, or a set period of time, you can do Fun Things with it. There's no staff to lose, you don't have to try and implement a separate cooldown for the staff, it's still all based off of spells, they just require the staff as a focus.

Because even if you add in methods to keep people from taking the staff, they're still going to get rid of it. They'll pour CF3 on it, or Acid, or stick it in a crate, or drop an explosive on top of it. The only way to ensure that somebody won't lose their Fireball staff is to prevent the spell from only affecting one staff.

[Embolism]

Dopellganger: this spell is useless. Let's change it entirely. Have it work so you can take the appearence of a station employee for 30 seconds, similar to vamp. Combine with empower for max gain.

Doppelganger is in no way, shape or form useless. It is in many ways a second casting of Phase Shift. I always choose it as a Wizard.

In case you don't know Doppelganger, also allows you to phase through windows and doors; and it is possible to cast spells (Summon Golem at least) while invisible too. Plus it lasts slightly longer than Phase Shift does.

[VictorMAngoStein]

I think we can all agree that what the wizard needs are some voodoo spells and a robe like this:

[Nubcake]

I think Bulls charge could be changed so that instead of affecting an area it affects you instead, making anyone you ran into get knocked down/away like the krumpus (ugh) would do

[Klayboxx]

Wizard rounds should end when all wizards are de-bearded. Someone came up with a good pun too,

The crew has shaved the day!

[Conor12]

I couldn't kill (or even really hurt) anyone after about 20 minutes running around using Bull's Charge and with the recharge removed.

It is awkward to hit people with, but it's unique and fun if you do, so don't change that aspect.

It needs a solid damage increase, and should probably tear some limbs too. It is a giant magical bull's head after all.